Hi, Brother Smith.” “Hello, Sister Jones.” “Pastor Williams left you a note.” “Bishop Taylor will see you now.”
Yuck! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t talk that way anywhere in life. Sure, I’ll call a doctor, a doctor or a military, police or fire officer, their hard-earned rank, but I’ve just never gotten how weird we are in the church with our insistence on titles. Other than “Lord”, which is only reserved for One, the rest of us are simply children of God.
I guess I became more acutely aware of this when I became a pastor myself. Before being called into ministry, I had already received a master’s degree while preparing in my former field. Sure, a few more years of applying myself and I could have gone on for that doctorate and a lifetime of being addressed as “Doctor”. An achievement? Okay, but I’m still Scott or Tank to those who know me best, and the best honor anyone could recognize me with verbally is calling me friend. I don’t need any more than that.
With all my conversation in church world today, I still recoil a bit whenever I get a message or email from “Pastor so-and-so” or I get called that myself. I am, but why does my title matter, especially to the outside world? Generally, one of the inherent functions of titles is to distinguish, or you might even say, exclude the title-holder from the general population. It’s always been most prevalent in fields and occupations where instantaneous clarification of one’s education and knowledge is important. If you’ve got the title, it means you’ve gotten exposure to the knowledge and advanced training.
Okay, before I rile up too many, I’m not at all suggesting that Christian education and personal study are not important for the Christian faith. I’m just arguing that the bestowing of titles for doing so simply does the job titles are intended to do: elevates and, in a way, excludes the title-holder from the general population. Don’t believe me? If it hasn’t happened to you personally, how familiar is the characterization of people “straightening up” or “acting right” when they know a pastor is in their midst. Usually, it’s an absolute conversation killer or at the very least, when the pastor leaves it’s a relief because everyone can go back to acting “normal”.
Do we need recognition this badly? Is it at all necessary or just emblematic of low self-esteem? The real question: Did Jesus throw his accolades around or just engage the general population? What can we learn from that? What’s more important, getting your publish post title out there so people will salve your ego or just being your plain ol’ first name and meeting people in the middle of life?
Jeremy
